Earlier this month, I had the great honour of representing TIG at a gender equity conference (sponsored in part by the UNESCO division of women, science, and technology in Latin America, PRIGEPP, and FLACSO Argentina) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The experience provided an endless series of personal growth milestones (it was my first time ever traveling alone, for one), but apart from that, it gave me a window into another cultural context for feminist scholarship. My biggest takeaway, though, came from the numbers. And, though I hate to say it, these stats don't look too good for us ladies.

The facts? Women earn 19-27% less, on average, than men do in the exact same professional roles. Furthermore, approximately 2/3 of the world's impoverished population is female. One point that was emphasized in the conference, and that I strongly agree with, is the need to correct this disparity.

It's an experience that I, and almost every other woman I have ever met, have unfortunately shared. My first real job in high school was behind the front desk of a health club, where I was paid substantially less than a (totally useless) male coworker who had been working there for half as long as I had. When I confronted my (female) supervisor about this fact, she shrugged her shoulders and said helplessly, "Trust me, that's the way it always is." No apologies, no explanations. She had simply given up on the idea that the world could be any other way.

That was the exact moment when I became a feminist.


One would think that an ideal political landscape is one that prioritizes a social focus, where the aim is to improve the lives of everyone and not just a privileged few. The realization of this system hinges on the economic autonomy of the world's women in order to empower them/us to become fully engaged members of society. It is up to us to take matters into our own hands and be proactive agents of positive change.